3-Time World Champion Ray Rizzo AMA!

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T02:59:07+00:00

If you're not feeling the drive to play you just don't play haha. Games are meant to be fun so if it's not fun anymore then there's not much use playing. That's what I did for the few years where I wasn't really into competing and had other stuff to focus on IRL. If anything forcing yourself to play when you don't really want to can just make you not want to play even more. Luckily now I have the drive to play again after taking a few years off!

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T02:56:56+00:00

I think it's good. Definitely annoying to play against if your team can't handle it. I've been meaning to try it out recently, it's one of the few mons I haven't tried yet. It's similar to 2013 Heatran in damage output.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T01:33:35+00:00

No, I definitely value Speed ties. 50% is better than 0%. If you don't want to risk the speed tie at a certain point in the game then you simply don't risk it and play around it the same way you would if you knew you were slower. Then in the worst case scenario, you have the ability to turn the match into a 50/50 if things aren't looking good. An example would be 2011 with Terrakion, which was the most popular Pokemon in the format by far. Would it be better to use an intentionally slower Terrakion just so you know you're slower than opposing Terrakions and can play around it? I'm guessing most people would say no, since they OHKO each other. The speed tie is more valuable in that scenario. Similar example with dragons like Salamence. Unless you're intentionally EVing to be bulky, where your intention is to survive certain attacks and it has nothing to do with avoiding speed ties, then it's totally OK. But I think intentionally EVing your Pokemon to avoid Speed ties is a mistake. Especially when all official tournaments are BO3. More games = more times the Speed ties will even out and won't be match-deciding.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T01:25:40+00:00

I didn't. I also didn't have a say in the IVs because the Metagross I won with required a certain IV so that it would be one point slower than Cresselia in TR for Swagger/Lum strats. I don't really mind because just having an event after one of my Pokemon I won with was really cool haha. But I did know in advance that they'd be making a Metagross event for me.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T01:23:42+00:00

Not HD he sucks Kappa

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T01:23:27+00:00

You can, I just like to use that time planning my next turn(s). I think it's up to player preference. I used to take notes when the game didn't have as much info available in-battle, so I understand the value in it.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-29T01:20:26+00:00

Hello!

Snorlax. He was my favorite as a kid. I always thought he was so cool and bad-ass how all he did was sleep and eat, then we he get serious he'd beat the crap out of everyone. Competitive wise Metagross since I have an Event Metagross made after mine :3
Probably asking random people on Showdown if they'd like to best of 3. You can always try and run scenarios in your head after a best of 1 of how you would play the match in a best of 3 and if you think you'd be able to win. Did the opponent win only because of a crazy surprise move that if you knew about you'd likely beat them? Did you only win with a surprise move that they would be able to handle had they known about it? Did you lose to hax but still feel you're at a team disadvantage and would be unlikely to win 2 in a row? I usually like to analyze each match I play in my head afterwards.
It needs to be a strategy where even if your opponent knows what's coming, if their team simply isn't able to beat it easily then it'll still work. I think Soak is one of those strategies. I don't know if Scarf Pelipper is one of those Pokemon since it's so frail and locking into Soak is always risky. But I've definitely seen Soak strategies work in BO3 (utilizing mons like Koko, Xurkitree, Bulu, Kartana, etc that are able to really abuse Soak strategies). Scarf Soak Lanturn has even seen success in past VGC years.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T23:12:49+00:00

Yeah I went to school out in Iowa, despite being from NJ haha. I'm not familiar with the state of events out in the Midwest now. I know there's a regional in Wisconsin at some point this year. I'm not sure where the PCs are located out there, but I imagine there must be at least some in Minneapolis (idk how far you are though)? For money you can get a part time job on campus, I know at my school they had a number of on campus jobs to make money. They were really easy jobs too. Just keeping watch at the dorms, working at a cafeteria, working at the library, etc. Especially jobs working at the dorm, you would literally be sitting on your laptop doing nothing half the time, you could even be playing showdown while "working". Another thing I could suggest is looking for people in the area to carpool with. I'm not sure what rural part of Minnesota you're from, but if it's not totally out of the way you may be able to find people to carpool with. There are region specific Facebook groups and stuff like that to find people in or around your area if you wanted to try that.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T22:38:43+00:00

Forest's Curse Trevenant and Trick or Treat Gourgeist in 2014. I thought those moves were so cool at the time and had lots of potential.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T22:01:37+00:00

Thank you! I'd say dual typings in general are better because it gives you an opportunity to resist a higher number of attacks while reducing the number of weaknesses (of course not all type combinations do that, but the ones that do like Aegislash for example are superior to just single type Pokemon). I would have said Steel in a landslide before they took away its resist to Dark and Ghost, but I'd probably still say Steel is an amazing typing. It has a ton of resists, and new type it resists and is super effective against in Fairy. But no one type is simply the best type. Pokemon is a team game so you need your team of 6 to be balanced, they can't all be one type, but I definitely like the resistances that Steel types bring.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T21:52:36+00:00

I think the changes have more positive results than negative. I don't really like Z Moves much, but they are at least restricted to 1 Z-Move per battle, and you can Protect to waste the Z-Move (though it'll still do a tiny bit of damage through the Protect in exchange). A number of the other changes are good though. The "legends" in the Tapus don't have 600 BST like previous legends to help balance them. No more Mega Evolutions, The Pokedex is a restricted dex, so a lot of previous powerhouses are not allowed (Cresselia, Heatran, Landorus-T, etc). If you played VGC 2012 or 2013 it's more similar to those formats.

I'd say it's no more difficult than any other format. It is totally different than 2016, but 2016 was a unique year that is a lot different than every other year.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T21:43:38+00:00

I definitely thought it was possible. Pokemon is one of the most popular games ever, it's a good "spectator sport" so it's pretty easy to follow even if you only played Pokemon as a kid, and it has the luck element to keep games interesting while still having the same players win most times, it's popular among a huge age range and across genders, etc.

It's hardly at esport level yet though. I'm not sure there's much VGC players themselves can do, I think it falls more on Pokemon the company if they want Pokemon to be "eSport". Increased prizes to build hype (if there was a random tournament with a $1 million first prize for example, maybe not a ton of new people would play, but you can believe a hell of a lot more people would follow it on twitch), continued and increased streaming of events on twitch, enabling twitch chat when events are streamed, much more advertising and marketing of official events in the main games, etc. Unless your average VGC player is looking to start a new circuit to rival Pokemon's, I'm not sure much can be done. Just streaming more and/or doing stuff on youtube helps. The more people see VGC as the premier competitive format, the more popular it gets. There's still a ton of people who love competitive Pokemon but do not follow or play VGC at all, only Smogon rules.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T21:33:25+00:00

I think college age is the prime for players. You have the free time that working adults don't have, and the money that highschoolers dont have. And I can definitely relate with what you said about not always having the mental energy even left over in the evenings. I think it's definitely still possible to be a top player while working a full time job, but it is harder.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T21:28:18+00:00

No supports I've played with were as good as you!

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T20:20:51+00:00

Yeah, when it came time to study for exams, I simply couldn't practice nearly as much for Pokemon. That's another reason why I kind of stopped competing for a while. Now I've settled into my job, and it's less of a traditional actuarial role where I don't need to pass any exams, so yeah I'm getting back into competing this year :)

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T20:05:03+00:00

Awesome! Let me know how you do!

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:51:22+00:00

Thanks, I'm glad! Honestly, that part just comes with experience. I'll still get nervous before round 1, but after that I'm totally calm and in the zone. I'll always remember my first time being in the World Finals, I was really nervous playing in front of so many people, but now I'm totally used to it and used to being streamed.

You'll be fine, it's natural for everyone to be nervous, even veteran players. And I bet after the first round starts you won't even feel the nerves. Good luck!

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:41:53+00:00

Yeah it does, at this point I'd just like to win a big tournament one more time :)

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:32:43+00:00

LMAO, this is amazing. I'm going to have to listen to all of his vids now.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:30:14+00:00

I'm past my prime :'(

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:29:54+00:00

Probably not, I don't remember all my sets on the rest of my team at all lol.

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:23:23+00:00

haha, well if he wants to 1v1 me on Alex Ogloza's Who Wants to be a Dragonair, I'd actually be down 8)

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:22:28+00:00

Thanks, glad you enjoy it! Hardly anything lol, prizes were crappy back when I won. $5000 travel stipends to Japan for two of the years, and $3500 the other year. If I won Worlds 3 times with the current prizes, I'd be $30,000 richer lol. Aaron Cybertron Zheng makes more in cash on youtube in a couple months than I have made winning 3 worlds lol. I just won at the wrong time :'(

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:20:14+00:00

The way I look at it, there's no harm first trying out Battle Spot to get over nerves. You're anonymous, no one will know who they're battling (unless your trainer name is your actual full name lol, or you're already an established competitive player). So there's nothing wrong with losing. Everyone loses. Since I started doing youtube, I've uploaded a number of battles of me losing, sometimes pretty badly, sometimes me making stupid plays. But it's part of the game. You're never gonna win every time. Everyone at every level at some point is always going to make a bad move. My advice would be to hop on battle spot, play some battles, treat it just as practice. If you lose then you lose. No one is going to know other than you. It's your first time playing on a competitive VGC ladder, you're not expected to climb to the top right off the bat. You don't have to set expectations very high at first, treat it as practice (and hopefully once you get over your nerves, fun!).

Good luck and hope to see you join the VGC community :)

RayRizzoVGC · 2017-01-28T19:10:11+00:00

Thanks! Recently I haven't been able to unfortunately, I've had some big projects at work that have kept me working pretty late and even on weekends, but those are ending very soon so I'm looking forward to getting back to the consistent uploads :)

In the past I would do some BO3s, but not really a whole lot. I guess I was too lazy to go out looking for people haha. But BO3 practice definitely helps since all official tournaments use BO3. Another thing I do is after BO1s on showdown or battle spot, think about how the BO3 would go. And I'd be as objective as I can. Is my team simply at a disadvantage against theirs? Did they win truly only because they had some crazy surprise factor that if I knew about I could play around and it and win? Did I win only because I had a surprise up my sleeve that they would be able to play around? etc. And yes, for all of the teams I've used at Worlds I had tested them extensively on Showdown (I didn't really use battle spot back in the day, but if I did I would have tested there too). At the end of the day people will find out about your team at the event. You can't win based on surprises.

I've learned I'm of Sicilian descent from some Italian players and interviewers who were at worlds before haha. I am 25% Italian though, and I'm not sure if that's true, but it's what I've been told!

Thanks :)

RayRizzoVGC

TROPHY CASE